Pallet Constructed Substantially From Corrugated Cardboard and Paperboard

ABSTRACT

A pallet constructed substantially entirely of recycled corrugated cardboard and/or paperboard materials, having a top deck comprising a planar laminate of corrugated cardboard and/or paperboard materials, and a plurality of spacers affixed to the top deck and projecting downwardly from the bottom surface thereof. The spacers comprise part-cylindrical portions of wound multilayer paperboard tubes, i.e., wound multilayer paperboard tubes that have been cut along a plane passing through or parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the tube. The part-tubes are affixed to the top deck such that the outer cylindrical surfaces of the part-tubes engage the floor or ground on which the pallet is supported. The pallet has the part-tubes arranged in three straight rows parallel to a first direction lying in the plane of the top deck and spaced apart along a second direction lying in the plane of the top deck and perpendicular to the first direction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present application relates to pallets for supporting items in shipment and storage.

The shipping of products from manufacturers to distributors generally entails the use of pallets for supporting and palletizing the products so that the products can easily be moved about using forklifts and the like. It is estimated that in the United States alone, presently there are approximately 1.4 billion pallets in circulation. The overwhelming majority of these pallets are conventional wood pallets made from wood boards nailed together. In the United States alone, approximately one million acres of timber go into the manufacturing of wood pallets per year. Wood pallets are difficult to dispose of after they have exhausted their useful life. It is estimated that approximately 120 million wood pallets are going to landfills each year. Currently it costs approximately one dollar per pallet to dispose of conventional wood pallets. Many landfills, however, are no longer accepting pallets. Thus, wood pallets represent a significant burden on the environment.

Apart from the environmental disadvantages, wood pallets are heavy, typically weighing as much as 70 pounds. As a consequence, a significant portion of the cost for shipping products is due to the weight of the pallets.

Additionally, wood pallets are relatively expensive to manufacture. The raw materials for a typical wood pallet cost approximately $5 to $6, to which the cost of labor for assembling the pallet must be added.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an alternative to conventional wood pallets, namely, a pallet constructed substantially entirely of paper materials made from recycled fibers. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the pallet has a top deck made substantially entirely of paper material. The top deck can comprise a planar laminate of corrugated cardboard layers only, or a combination of corrugated and non-corrugated paperboard layers, or in some cases non-corrugated paperboard layers only. The top deck optionally can include a non-paper layer such as a polymer film or polymer coating for water resistance. The top deck has a planar top surface for supporting items, and a planar bottom surface.

The pallet further comprises a plurality of spacers affixed to the top deck and projecting downwardly from the bottom surface thereof. The spacers comprise part-cylindrical portions of wound multilayer paperboard tubes, i.e., wound multilayer paperboard tubes that have been cut along a plane passing through or parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the tube. In one embodiment, each tube is cut into halves that are substantially identical to each other. The part-tubes are affixed to the top deck with the cut edges against the bottom surface of the top deck, such that the outer cylindrical surfaces of the part-tubes engage the floor or ground on which the pallet is supported. The pallet has the part-tubes arranged in three straight rows parallel to a first direction lying in the plane of the top deck and spaced apart along a second direction lying in the plane of the top deck and perpendicular to the first direction. Each row is made up of at least one part-tube and has a length spanning a majority of a corresponding length of the top deck, and preferably spanning the entire length of the top deck.

In one embodiment, each row of spacers is made up of a single part-tube forming the full length of the row.

In another embodiment, each row of spacers is made up of a plurality of part-tubes spaced apart along the first direction.

In a particular embodiment, each row of spacers is made up of three part-tubes spaced apart in the first direction, and the spacers of each row are aligned (with respect to the second direction) with the spacers of the other rows, such that the spacers form a 3×3 orthogonal grid.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pallet in accordance with one embodiment of the invention, with the pallet oriented right-side up;

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the pallet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the pallet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a stack of multiple pallets in accordance with FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view, generally from below, of a pallet in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view of the pallet of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

A pallet 10 in accordance with one embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 1-3. The pallet includes a top deck 20, and a plurality of spacers 30, 32, 34. The top deck 20 has a planar upper surface 22 and a planar bottom surface 24. The spacers 30, 32, 34 are affixed to the top deck 20 such that they project downwardly from the bottom surface 24.

The top deck 20 is a planar laminate of corrugated cardboard and/or paperboard materials. For example, in one embodiment, the top deck can comprise multiple layers of single-faced and/or double-faced corrugated board adhesively laminated together. As known in the art, single-faced corrugated board consists of one layer of corrugated paperboard glued to a flat (non-corrugated) face sheet of paperboard. Double-faced corrugated board has two non-corrugated face sheets of paperboard, with the corrugated paperboard layer disposed between and glued to the face sheets. The top deck 20 can also include one or more sheets of non-corrugated paperboard that is/are not part of a single- or double-faced corrugated board. It is also possible for the top deck to be constructed entirely of non-corrugated paperboard materials, in some cases. If water-resistance is desired for the top deck, it can include a polymer layer such as a polymer film (e.g., polyethylene film) or a polymer coating, or the top deck can be sealed with a suitable water-resistant sealant. The top deck can have a thickness ranging from about 3 mm to 30 mm, depending on the strength requirements of each particular usage environment. The dimensions of the top deck can range from about 600×800 mm (about 24×32 inches) to about 1200×1200 mm (about 48×48 inches). In one particular embodiment, the top deck can be 800×1200 mm; in another particular embodiment, the top deck can be 1000×1200 mm.

Each spacer 30, 32, 34 is a “part-tube” formed from a multilayer wound paperboard tube that has been cut along a plane containing or parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the tube so as to divide the tube into part-tubes each having a cylindrical inner surface and a cylindrical outer surface and having cut edges where the tube was cut. In some embodiments of the invention, each part-tube is a half-tube formed by cutting the tube along a plane containing the longitudinal axis, and thus each part-tube subtends an arc of 180° about the axis. Alternatively, however, it is possible for each part-tube to subtend an arc of less than 180°. If water-resistance is desired for the spacers, they can include a radially outermost ply that is made water-resistant by way of a coating or film of polymer material that resists water penetration. Alternatively, the spacers can be made water-resistant by coating the finished spacers with a water-resistant polymer coating or sealing the spacers with a water-resistant sealant.

Preferably, the spacers 30, 32, 34 space the lower surface of the top deck 20 above the floor or ground by a spacing distance that is at least 80 mm, and more preferably is about 90 to 95 mm, to provide adequate space for the tines of a lift vehicle to be inserted beneath the top deck in the openings defined between the spacers. More generally, the spacing can range from about 80 to about 100 mm. Accordingly, the wound paperboard tubes from which the spacers 30, 32, 34 are made preferably have an outside diameter of at least about 160 mm, and more preferably have an OD of about 160 to 200 mm. The wall thickness of the tubes can range from about 3 mm to about 25 mm.

The part-tubes 30, 32, 34 can be affixed to the top deck 20 in various ways, the invention not being limited to any particular one. In one embodiment, the cut edges of the part-tubes are glued, such as by hot melt glue or PVA glue, to the bottom surface 24 of the top deck.

In accordance with the invention, the spacers 30, 32, 34 are arranged in three straight rows, each row extending parallel to a first direction (top-to-bottom in FIG. 2), and the rows being spaced apart along a second direction (left-to-right in FIG. 2) perpendicular to the first direction, the first and second directions lying in the plane of the top deck 20. Each row is made up of at least one part-tube and the row has a length spanning at least a majority of a corresponding length or width of the top deck, and preferably spanning the entire length or width of the top deck. The rows can extend parallel to either the longer or the shorter dimension of the top deck, for embodiments in which the top deck is not square. In the embodiment of FIGS. 1-3, in which each row is formed by a single part-tube, there are two openings 42 and 44 defined between the adjacent rows for receiving the tines of the fork of a lifting vehicle so that the pallet can be lifted and transported by the vehicle. The pallet 10 thus is a two-way entry pallet.

FIG. 4 illustrates how multiple pallets 10 can be stacked one atop another. The part-tubes 30, 32, 34 are spaced apart by distances that preferably are greater than their widths, which allows each succeeding pallet 10 in the stack to be inverted and staggered relative to the underlying pallet such that the part-tubes of one pallet nest in the spaces between the part-tubes of an adjacent pallet. This conserves vertical space for stacking the pallets and helps keep the pallets in a stack because of the interlocking fit between spacers.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a second embodiment of a pallet 10′ in accordance with the invention. The pallet has a top deck 20′ substantially as described for the previous embodiment. The pallet 10′ also has three straight rows of spacers, but in this embodiment there are nine (9) part-tubes 30 a, 30 b, 30 c, 32 a, 32 b, 32 c, 34 a, 34 b, 34 c spaced apart beneath the top deck in a 3×3 orthogonal grid. Each row of spacers is formed by three part-tubes spaced apart along the first direction. Thus, the pallet 10′ is a four-way entry pallet because in addition to the openings 42 and 44 between the adjacent rows in the first direction, there are openings 46 and 48 between the spacers in the second direction.

Pallets in accordance with the present invention can be used for carrying all sorts of dry loads with generally evenly distributed load per unit area. The weight-carrying capacity of the pallet can be varied as needed, by varying the lengths of the spacers, varying the wall thickness of the spacers and/or top deck, varying the strength of the paperboard of which the spacers and/or top deck are constructed, or any combination of these. Advantageously, the pallets in some embodiments can be completely recyclable by constructing them using only recyclable paperboard materials.

Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. 

1. A pallet constructed from recycled paper materials, comprising: a top deck made substantially entirely of paper material, the top deck comprising a planar laminate of multiple layers, the layers including at least one of corrugated cardboard material and non-corrugated paperboard material, the top deck having a planar top surface for supporting items, and a planar bottom surface; and a plurality of spacers affixed to the top deck and projecting downwardly from the bottom surface thereof, the spacers comprising part-tubes formed by cutting wound multilayer paperboard tubes along a plane parallel to the central longitudinal axis of each tube, the part-tubes being affixed to the top deck such that the outer cylindrical surfaces of the part-tubes engage the floor or ground on which the pallet is supported, the spacers spacing the top deck above the floor or ground, wherein there are openings defined between the spacers for receiving lifting members used for lifting the pallet off the floor or ground, and wherein the spacers are arranged in three straight rows parallel to a first direction lying in the plane of the top deck and spaced apart along a second direction lying in the plane of the top deck and perpendicular to the first direction.
 2. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein each row is made up of at least one part-tube and has a length spanning at least a majority of a corresponding length of the top deck.
 3. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein each row of spacers is made up of a single part-tube forming the full length of the row.
 4. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein each row of spacers is made up of a plurality of part-tubes spaced apart along the first direction.
 5. The pallet according to claim 4, wherein each row of spacers is made up of three part-tubes spaced apart in the first direction, and the spacers of each row are aligned, with respect to the second direction, with the spacers of the other rows, such that the spacers form a 3×3 orthogonal grid.
 6. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein the spacers are affixed to the top deck using adhesive.
 7. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein the top deck is a laminate of both corrugated and non-corrugated sheets of paperboard.
 8. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein the top deck is rectangular or square in plan view, having two edges parallel to the first direction and two edges parallel to the second direction.
 9. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein the spacers have a maximum width in the second direction and adjacent spacers are spaced apart in the second direction by distances greater than said maximum width.
 10. The pallet according to claim 1, wherein the top deck further comprises a polymer layer. 